Love that will not betray you
by karatam
Summary: Santana makes a choice that isn't as hard as she thought it was going to be. Set during "Journey". Gen.


**Rating**: PG  
><strong>Pairin<strong>**g/Characters**: gen (all of season 1 Glee club)  
><strong>Spoilers:<strong> none  
><strong>Word Length: <strong>1650**  
>Summary<strong>: Santana makes a choice that isn't as hard as she thought it was going to be  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: All characters belong to Fox and Ryan Murphy. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made from this work of fiction.  
><strong>AN**: This is set during "Journey" based off a prompt from Kay who asked for the Glee club being together after they lost Regionals. She also betaed this for me, so a big thanks to her.

/ /

Glee club was over.

Or, it was going to be once the winner of Regionals was announced, because it wasn't going to be them, not with Sue as one of the judges.

"I'm sorry, I just really love you guys. You know how many Facebook friends I had before I joined Glee club? Two: my parents." Tina laughed a little, remembering the days when she had nobody to call a friend. "Rachel was right, being a part of something special, it made me special. I just can't believe it's going to be over in a week." She wiped at her cheeks with her thumb, sniffing and wishing she had a tissue.

Finn sat up. "Wait, who says it's going to be over?"

Mercedes rolled her eyes and said, "Please, you think Puck and Santana are going to even acknowledge my existence once we're not in Glee club together anymore?"

"She has a point," Puck said, looking up with a furrowed brow. His complete lack of argument and the tensing of his jaw erased any hope she had. The social hierarchy would not let him just hang out with most of Glee once the club was gone.

When Rachel asked if they could skip selecting a song list and just cry together instead, Mercedes took Tina's hand and squeezed it gently as she accepted a tissue box from Mr. Schue.

It only made her want to cry more. Glee was what gave her all these friends, and it was about to end.

/ /

They lost. They didn't even place.

Glee club was over.

Come Monday, it would be back to the status quo.

/ /

Puck walked by Mercedes at her locker and had to force himself not to stop. He had stopped by her locker every Monday morning to update her on his progress in Super Mario, not that she cared in the slightest, but it was tradition.

They locked eyes and then both turned away at the same moment. They weren't allowed to be friends anymore, not without the safety of the choir room to retreat to.

/ /

Mike and Matt actually did stop at Artie's locker before they remembered that they couldn't do that. They were used to asking if Artie had made any more progress in his game of Call of Duty. The three of them were talking intently before Matt was shoved from behind and nearly went face first into the lockers.

They looked up to see a bunch of the football jocks standing there, staring at them with anger and contempt in their eyes.

Artie quickly moved himself backwards while Mike and Matt took a step in the other direction, glancing worriedly at each other. They nodded slightly at Artie, who gave a hint of a smile, before they turned and walked down the hall. Artie closed his locker and went the opposite way.

/ /

Brittany bounced up to Kurt and Rachel, who were standing in line at the cafeteria, asking excitedly if they had done anything cool over the weekend because her dad had taken her to this awesome river with lots of ducks and—

She cut herself off when she finally noticed that they were both looking at her with wide eyes and Kurt was slowly shaking his head back and forth. She looked at them and the smile slid off her face as she realized what they were trying to tell her. She let go of their wrists – she had grabbed them in her excitement over the ducks – and whispered a goodbye before slipping away to go stand beside Mike.

/ /

Santana stood at the entrance to the cafeteria, tray in hand. The cheerleaders and jocks were sitting together in a pushed together pile of tables off to her left, and she knew that was where she was supposed to be.

She was the captain of the Cheerios, the most popular girl in school, and she knew it. She usually owned it and held court with the squad a bunch of drooling boys with Brittany by her side.

The rejects of Glee club were scattered around the rest of the room in twos and threes: Finn, Mike and Matt; Kurt, Artie and Rachel; Mercedes and Quinn; and Tina all by herself, doing classwork.

Glee was the best part of her day. She had admitted it to all of them months ago, but it wasn't exactly common knowledge around the school. The rest of the Cheerios still thought it was some complicated plot to bring down the biggest club of losers to ever grace the halls of McKinley, and she had never corrected them. Well, mission accomplished.

And yet, she missed it. Missed the fact that she could be herself with this stupid group of misfits and not have to worry about having a slushie thrown in her face or finding a knife stabbed in her back. She could sing and dance with her best friend and people she had come to like, however begrudgingly. She smiled more in that hour than she did the rest of the week outside Glee combined. It made her happy.

So the choice turned out to be simple, consequences be damned for once.

She walked deliberately away from the expectant faces of her fellow Cheerios and toward the girl sitting all by herself at an isolated table.

"Mind if I sit down?" Her voice sounded far too loud to her ears.

Tina looked up from her notebook and her eyes widened in a way that almost made Santana laugh. "Uh," she said.

Santana rolled her eyes and put her tray at the place across from Tina, sliding into the chair a second later. "Whatever, I'm eating here."

Glancing around and seeing that people were watching whatever the hell it was that Santana was doing, Tina leaned over and whispered, "What are you doing? We don't sit together, like, ever."

Santana shrugged, picking up her sandwich and carefully picking at the plastic wrapping. "I own this school; I can do whatever I want." She sighed and dropped her sandwich back onto her tray. "I hate cafeteria food."

Tina looked like she didn't quite know how to respond, her mouth dropped open like a fish, and was simply staring at Santana with wide eyes when a body suddenly dropped into the seat beside her. She jumped in her chair and turned to her left to see Puck starting in on his hamburger. "Puck?"

His eyebrows went up as he chewed and then took a sip of his drink. "Hey Tina." He went back to eating right away, scowling when Santana kicked his shin when his started chewing with his mouth open.

Then Brittany sat down next to Santana, nudging their shoulders together as she leaned over to grab Santana's yogurt cup. "You took my favorite flavor again, so I picked up yours." Tina watched as Santana smiled softly and took the yogurt that Brittany was offering, vanilla.

Puck leaned over and whispered in Tina's ear, "Santana hates vanilla, but every flavor is Brittany's favorite." Tina ducked her head to stop from giggling. Santana cocked an eyebrow at Puck, rolling her eyes when he just smirked at her.

Mercedes and Quinn were the next to join them, sitting beside Puck and Brittany respectively. Puck launched into a tale of his latest escapades in Super Mario while Mercedes just rolled her eyes with a smile. Brittany just wrapped Quinn up in a hug, laughing when Quinn playfully tickled her sides in retaliation.

With the distinctive scrape of chairs being dragged along the floor, Matt and Mike joined them, quickly followed by Finn, who had been recruited by Rachel to carry as many free chairs as he could. They all shifted closer together to accommodate the extra people at the table – a table that was clearly far too small for twelve people to sit comfortably around, but they weren't going to move.

Rachel leaned over Finn to ask Mike and Matt about a new dance move they had wanted to incorporate into choreography before time constraints had caused them to give up. Kurt bent his head with Brittany and Quinn, discussing skin care products (though Brittany was talking about mayonnaise, so who knows if she was actually part of the conversation). Artie was talking to Finn about the merits of Call of Duty over Halo and Finn was arguing strongly on the opposite side of the debate.

Santana glanced around the table of Cheerios, taking the surprised faces and shocked whispers. She set her jaw and raised an eyebrow at her team; it was not their place to question their captain. The Cheerios quickly turned away to talk amongst themselves.

"Thank you." Tina said it so quietly that no conversation even paused. Santana heard, though, and let her eyes roam around the table, taking in the smiles and laughter, knowing that half of them were seconds away from bursting into song, before looking back at Tina. "Thank you," she repeated.

Santana's mouth slowly turned up into a smile and she shrugged. "It's the best part of my day." She winked at Tina, who grinned in return, before Brittany tugged on her arm, drawing her attention away.

Rachel piped up, almost vibrating with excitement in her chair. "Guys, I believe that we should put together a musical number to express our appreciation for Mr. Schue and I already have a song in mind." She was practically begging for an eye roll and Santana was happy to oblige.

Lame as Rachel's idea was, Santana could admit to herself that she missed this, missed how well they all worked together once they got past all their clashing personalities and drama. Not that she'd probably ever say it out loud again, but it was true all the same.

Everyone leaned forward, eager to work together like this once again.


End file.
